• Worldwide distribution. On sweetpotato, most probably water spinach (kangkong), and wild Ipomoea types in the morning glory family. A minor pest.
• Adult beetles makes irregular feeding marks as they scape the leaf surface.
• Eggs laid in soil at base of vines; larvae feed on the roots, with some types (in the USA) making trails over the storage roots, which cause splitting.
• Cultural control: select healthy cuttings; avoid overlapping crops; avoid planting consecutive crops in the same land as eggs, larvae and pupae may still be in the soil.
• Chemical control: none recommended.

Sweetpotato flea beetle

Chaetocnema species.The species known as the sweetpotato flea beetle is Chaetocnema confinis, especially in the USA. There may be other species.